It would be a political miracle that would shake up the US if President Obama had the courage to announce he would not seek a second term.
Admittedly, I never was a fan of President Obama, either as a candidate or now as president. I always suspected, based on his dependence on corporate money and his lackluster career as a state and US senator that he would, ultimately, prove to be a big disappointment to the millions of Democrats, liberals, progressives and independents that fell for his slick rhetoric. He has always been too much a part of the two-party plutocracy to ever be a true reformer. Here are some of the main reasons that he should cut his ties to corporate and political elites, announce that he will not run for reelection and, instead, become the populist, reformist president the nation desperately needs:…







Article comments
— go to most recent comments26 - Baritone
As to Silas' drug suggestions, generally I would agree. It's not likely to happen because this country just can't get passed it's puritanical roots. It is far too inbred into the fabric of this society to condone anyone actually having a good time. One must be deprived of joy or pleasure and punished if achieved.
I'm of the same mind as El B. This discussion is like writing off a sports team a quarter into the season because they've lost a couple of games.
Look at the Tennessee Titans. They lost their first 6 games. In about everyone's mind they were done. Enter Vince Young. Now, they are 5 & 6. They remain a long shot, but if they continue to win and get a bit of help, they could sneak in as a wild card. In that case, they could take it all.
Obama ain't done yet.
B
27 - Baronius
Baritone, a misattributed quote doesn't reflect well on Palin, but it reflects terribly on her publisher, HarperCollins.
28 - Matthew T. Sussman
So you're saying President Obama is a longshot to win a second term?
29 - Arch Conservative
Palin had a misquote?
Hey Baritone, Barack Obama once claimed to have campaigned in all 57 states.
Did you make a huge fucking deal out of that?
My money's on no....you didn't.
30 - zingzing
just on a hunch, i went and looked up "united states and territories" to see how many there were. yep, 57 (including dc). obviously, obama doesn't think there are 57 states. he just didn't add in "and territories."
palin, however, thinks (or thought) that a college coach said those words.
31 - handyguy
This alleged 'one-term president' has just given another extraordinary speech [at West Point, on Afghanistan]. Still think he's amateurish? Maybe that's just wishful thinking on your part.
32 - Arch Conservative
If all Obama ever does while in office is give good speeches then we're all screwed handy.
Oh and zing.....territories don't vote, Obama didn't campaign in the territories and if Palin had said the same thing you hypocrite moonbats would have been all over.
57 states
33 - zingzing
true, territories don't vote.
obama doesn't think there are 57 states.
and if palin had said the same thing, it would be another turd on the mountain she's pumped out. so yeah, you're probably right.
but your hypocrisy is at least equal to mine. i wouldn't deny it. (take that how you will.) (i love this game.)
34 - Cindy
re: Silas @ 5 and handy's reply @ 6
lmao!
35 - Baritone
Bar - I think that's what I said.
Matt - No. I think that things will turn around between now and 2012. I think he will win - perhaps not as dramatically as last year - but he will win decisively.
Arch - Once again - so you can understand, I'll type slowly - Whatever Obama said regarding his having visited 57 states, it was said impromptu at a question/answer session. Palin's gaff is in a FUCKING BOOK!
Do you grasp the difference, Arch? Mmmmm. Perhaps not. Oh, well...
handy - While I'm not really on board with an escalation in Afghanistan, I agree, it was a good speech. I hope it works.
B
36 - Dan
Ha ha. So Sarah Palin misattributed a quote by John Wooden... to John Wooden?
That's the best Keith O can do? Why even mention it. Even if true, which could very well be suspect given the lying weasels track record, does it even matter?
The more pathetic these smear attempts on Sarah Palin are, (yes, you can see Russia from Alaska, and yes government death panels did just recommend women put off mammograms until they're 50) the more one realizes that Sarah Palin does indeed have something going on.
37 - Mark
In the off chance that he goes post-Keynesian and muscles through a jobs program following some variant of Minsky's proposals, he wins -- along with State capitalism.
38 - zingzing
"yes, you can see Russia from Alaska"
ha. sorta. if you're stretching.
"and yes government death panels did just recommend women put off mammograms until they're 50"
ahh, the death panels. glad they're back.
39 - Baritone
Death panels? Why can't you idiots get beyond that stupid shit. Are you just so brain dead that it's beyond you?
And NO, she did NOT mis-attribute a John Wooden quote to John Wooden. She mis-attributed a JOHN WOODEN LEGS quote to John Wooden.
"Our land is everything to us... I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember that our grandfathers paid for it - with their lives."
John Wooden Legs - Cheyenne
I am a great admirer of Coach Wooden, but does that sound even remotely like something he would have been quoted as saying?
In and of itself that is no big whup, but I note once again that this appears to be just the tip of the iceberg. Palin has managed to get into publication a pack of mis-attributes, fantasies, equivocations and out right lies into her 400+ page tome.
Palin is a crap load with big hair and a decently tight ass.
40 - Dan
"ahh, the death panels. glad they're back."
When did they ever go anywhere? On one hand Palin haters lapse into shrieking fits when the term is used, but then gayly argue that insurance companies already use "death panels" (which they do).
The desperation of obsessive Palin haters in their all out attempt to marginalize her is about as convincing as Silas' informing us how yucky Carrie Prejean is.
not very.
41 - handyguy
Ms. Prejean's astonishingly ridiculous [and very funny] appearance on Larry King a few weeks ago takes her way beyond yucky. She's in a zone all her own.
42 - handyguy
For those inclined to write Obama off [mostly those who have hated him all along], remember a couple of counterexamples: Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, who faced major setbacks in their first term but went on to win easy reelection.
I don't even accept the premise that he's in trouble: the Real Clear Politics average of approval polls is still at 50.3% approval, 43.7% disapproval.
Who do you think those 50.3% are, anyway? All liberal true believers? No way.
43 - Cindy
If you have a wooden leg do they make you take it off at the airport so they can look inside it or do you think that would be profiling the handicapped?
44 - Irene Wagner
That sounds kinda cheeky, Cindy.
45 - Baritone
Sounds more like a random thought. Let's put it to music. :)
B
46 - Irene Wagner
No no not music. Its...LIMMERICK time!
47 - Irene Wagner
A Holiday Trav'ler named Peg
Was required to take off her leg...
OK, now I've got to read THIS article, too.
Carry on.
48 - Cindy
lol :-)
49 - Irene Wagner
I'll bet by 2011 Obama will look 12 years older instead of four. I'm not even sure he'll want another term, even if he had a chance of getting elected again. I can't remember a President who walked into more of a mess. Not takin' up for him or anything, and he wasn't my pick last November, but I still feel sorry for him, in a naive sort of way.
50 - Dave Nalle
Look at the Tennessee Titans. They lost their first 6 games. In about everyone's mind they were done. Enter Vince Young. Now, they are 5 & 6. They remain a long shot, but if they continue to win and get a bit of help, they could sneak in as a wild card. In that case, they could take it all.
So, Bari, how much money are you willing to bet on the Titans to win the superbowl right now?
I rest my case.
Dave
51 - Baronius
Here I go defending Obama.
He was saying that he'd campaigned in every state but one...except for Alaska and Hawaii...so that's 50...7 states. It's easy to see what his thought process was; he was going to say 50 but changed it to 47 midstream.
52 - Baritone
Since I am a Colt's fan, I wouldn't be inclined to make that bet.
But much the same thing happened to Clinton during his first term AND to every conservatives' hero, Ronnie. I doubt that anyone would have taken bets on their ability to recover in time for their second election. Nevertheless...
Arch and the rest of you cons have a big hard on in the belief that Obama is dead in the water. I'm not making or taking bets. Unlike all of you, I don't pretend to see into the future. Three years is a long time.
Oh and Arch. It's clear that you also have a hard on for the great Ms. Palin. I guess she has that look that no righty tighty can resist. I imagine you think she's winking at you. Hey, I think you can get an inflatable Palin doll now with all the desired orifices. I think you can get one free with each copy of her book.
Palin has made enough of her own gaffs that one more wouldn't make much difference.
The fact that you can't let go of an insignificant Obama gaff that happened more than a year ago would indicated that you had to, in desparation, reach back that far to find anything to load your gun with - even if it's nothing more than wet powder. Do you go out to local bars and tell everybody the "57 states" story and still get laughs?
No doubt if you had been in the same circumstance - making literally hundreds of appearances, giving hundreds of speeches for months on end, you would have NEVER said anything stupid. Never, never, never.
You are pathetic.
B
53 - Baronius
A Holiday Trav'ler named Peg
Was required to take off her leg
but the next guy, Abu,
got a friendly wave-through
because profiling vi'lates a reg.
54 - Baronius
Baritone, about half the conservatives posting on this thread didn't say anything about Obama being dead in the water. I said the opposite. The world is a lot more interesting than your stereotypes of it.
55 - Silas Kain
ROFLMAO #53. Now what if it is a Muslim male with a beard and wooden leg? Would he be profiled? Or would he be allowed through? Reminds me of the ol' joke - ever hear about the Irishman who thought Moby Dick was a venereal disease?
56 - zingzing
"an inflatable Palin doll now with all the desired orifices."
um. if you don't make that, i will. nothing like suckering some hicks. ok, "suckering" might not be the best word right now. but anyway, that's $$$.
57 - El Bicho
"Do you grasp the difference, Arch?"
@ 35 - Baritone, the problem is you presume Arch knows what a book is
58 - Glenn Contrarian
Arch -
I wonder if you realize that while the 'moonbats' might be on the liberal side, the Moonies are on your side...and frankly, I like moonbats a lot more than the Sun Myung Moon clan.
59 - Irene Wagner
re #53: Well done! Baronius I knew you'd be up to the task.
60 - Dr Dreadful
Said an Idahoan named Irene,
"Bar's is the best ditty I've seen!
It's piquantly topical,
And quite philosophical,
But isn't the least bit obscene!"
61 - Glenn Contrarian
Baritone -
Don't you know that Obama's single misstatement is FAR WORSE than Palin's plethora of pusillanimous pithiness?
Just as Bill Clinton's dalliances were FAR WORSE than the Bush family's business ties to the bin Laden family, and Obama's bow to the Japanese emperor is FAR WORSE than Dubya's administration instituting TORTURE in violation of international law, treaties to which we are signatory, and against the advice of the FBI and against the protests of American WWII interrogators.
We've got a splinter in our eye...and they've got a doggone forest.
62 - Irene Wagner
I LIKE that limmerick, Dr. D.
I'm not sure why the genre so easily bends itself in that direction. Tradition, maybe.
OK, I'm off.
63 - Glenn Contrarian
Irene -
You have to admit that not every good limerick contains 'Nantucket'....
64 - Silas Kain
Scanning the magazine racks at the local convenience store this afternoon I learned that Tiger Woods had an affair with two women; Barack Obama had a secret gay lover; and Brangelina is in trouble. If this drivel is what's populating the minds of rank and file Americans, I am frightened.
65 - Baronius
If Obama announced that he wasn't running for reelection, the next three years would be like Stalin and Trotsky vying for power in the Democratic Party.
66 - Baritone
If anyone imagines Obama will make any such announcement, they are out of their minds.
B
67 - Irene Wagner
A terrorist flew to Nantucket,
T.S.A. did not see his trebucket,
But they hassled poor Peg,
Made her take off her leg!
And found only loose change where she'd stuck it.
Don't EVER do that to me again, Glenn!
Cindy, I stopped trying to figure out who to believe a while ago. Not that isn't worth the effort.
68 - Baronius
Wow, Irene. Wow.
69 - Cindy
Bar @ 53
Oh my, that is excellent! Nice job. :-)
70 - Cindy
How you doin' today hot pants...er Silas. ;-)
(You did understand your bday videos right?...you know who that masked man was yes?)
I downloaded that other film you like, the one that makes you cry...forget the name. What does zing know, anyhow...he is to young to appreciate sappy movies...still has a stake in being cool.
71 - Cindy
Ah, it is so nice to be past cool. :-)
72 - Cindy
"Wow Irene Wow!" x deux
73 - Silas Kain
I downloaded that other film you like, the one that makes you cry...forget the name.
AUGUST RUSH!!! Watched the ending again today. I just love that ending.
zing...he is to young to appreciate sappy movies
Yeah a little peach fuzz on the right spots and they think they're wise old men.
...still has a stake in being cool.
Indeed, sometimes too cool.
...you know who that masked man was yes?
Indeed I did. Really wanted one of Levi without the hockey stick.
74 - Silas Kain
And now, as we enter 2010 I predict the nominees in 2012:
GOP: Romney/Pawlenty
DEM: Obama/Clinton
75 - Arch Conservative
Romney could run circles around both Barry and the bitch in terms of management skills and understanding of business and economics.
While Barry the community organizer was...community organizing....Romney had a real job and was doing it well.